ROME — Earlier this week, a poster of Pope Leo XIV appeared in the window of Bible SPA, a small shop along the ancient Borgo Santo Spiritu that sells natural beauty products inspired by Bible verses a few yards from St. Peter’s Square.
The poster, created with the help of artificial intelligence (don’t tell the new Holy Father, who is not a fan of AI), is an image of Leo in his papal whites, smiling with his lips closed and looking directly into the camera, as he holds a cup of Italian coffee.
“Let’s pray for the new pope Americano,” it reads.
The poster was one of the first new pieces of “pope swag” spotted in and around Vatican City, where dozens of shops, kiosks, stalls, and individual salespeople hawk all manner of tchotchkes, religious medals, statues, t-shirts, flags, rosaries, stuffies, hoodies and bobble heads emblazoned with the likeness of former and current popes.
The Leo XIV gear has been slow to emerge in the week since Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost of Chicago was elected to be the 267th leader of the Roman Catholic Church.
But on Friday morning, Pope Leo’s likeness began to appear.
“This is the best, the most beautiful, Papa Leone — here, smell,” said a man selling rose-scented rosaries, lifting a white plastic container with a sticker on top with a picture of Leo in his white papal garb so a potential customer could inhale the aroma.
There are many indications of a papal transition in progress, from the arcane and ceremonial to the political and pop-cultural. Changing the stickers on the top of the zillions of tourist rosaries sold around St. Peter’s is surely one of the most definitive.
Romans reserve judgement on new pope
Italians — and Romans in particular — have had mixed responses to the so-called “American pope.” Most are cautiously optimistic, taking a wait-and-see approach to the 69-year-old pontiff who grew up in the south suburbs.
“People are very happy, and we see that they ask many things about the new pope,” Anna Disserna, the clerk at Bible SPA, said Friday as she folded paper packaging for the store’s biblically inspired essential oils. “We are the first store that has displayed an image of the new pope — and this image attracts people … who are very joyful, very curious and full of hope for this new pontificate.”
To Disserna, who is Catholic and lives in Rome, the fact that Pope Leo was born in the United States is an encouraging sign for the future of the universal church.
“I think the modern church has to be more open, no?” she said. “We saw a Polish pope, a German, an Argentine, so I think it’s nice. It’s a pleasure to have an American pope.”
When Leo stepped out onto the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica a week ago, Christian Luciani, 55, a waiter at De’ Penitenzieri restaurant just a few blocks away, was “absolutely surprised” that he was an American.
“But some people tell me he’s very similar to the ex-pope, Franceso, and I loved him,” Luciani said.
Pope Francis, who was born in Argentina to Italian immigrant parents, was a largely beloved figure in Italy.
“To me, he was …” Luciani said, pantomiming someone reaching out and pulling another person close. “There was no distance with him. It was incredible,” he said. Francis said he wanted to be a shepherd with the smell of his sheep on him, to get close to the human beings who comprise the church.
Leo “takes after Pope Francis in this way. … He’s not American like your president now,” Luciani said, referring to Donald Trump. “I am hopeful. … A long time ago we had popes who were purely political. And a political pope is not good.”
He is Catholic and he believes, mostly, in the church, Luciani said. “But to me, love — if this is what you do, the church — this is good.”
Alessandro Bernate, 27, a native Roman who drives an Uber in Rome and often takes customers to and from the Vatican, is Catholic but hasn’t been practicing the last several years.
That Leo is an American, “is good for me,” Bernate said. “I don’t believe in church in general. One pope is the same as another, for me.”
He was driving near the Vatican when the new pope was elected. “People were shocked,” he said. “The people ran toward the square.”
“Franceso was good,” Bernate said, referring to Pope Francis. “Leone, we will see.”
Most Italians aren’t bothered by a bishop of Rome who speaks with a Chicago accent, he said. That Leo’s grandfather may have been born in the southern Italian city of Turin — before eventually emmigrating to the U.S. and settling in the south suburbs — doesn’t make any difference, he said.
“People are happy just the same: The new pope is the new pope,” Bernate said. “Romans, Italians, loved Francesco because he was a symbol of the poor.”
Cathleen Falsani wrote about the installation of Pope Benedict XVI as the Sun-Times religion reporter and columnist from 2000-2010. She is at the Vatican to cover the installation of Pope Leo XIV for Chicago Public Media.